Chronic. Five years ago, an intruder quietly broke into Emmanuel Macron’s campaign with the aim of weakening his presidential bid, or at the very least destabilizing the democratic process. Rumors about the private life of the former economy minister had been distilled and, at the end of the campaign, computer hackers had entered the mailboxes of his team. The “MacronLeaks” had seen tens of thousands of messages leaked, among which forgeries had slipped.
Russia Today and Sputnik had been banned from the candidate’s HQ, which saw them as “propaganda organs” . A survey published by The world two and a half years later linked the hack to an operation by the GRU, Russian military intelligence. Already, the shadow of Vladimir Putin was hovering over Emmanuel Macron’s campaign.
Five years later, the interference has changed in nature. Discretion is no longer required. Vladimir Poutine weighs with all his weight of dictator and invader on the second presidential campaign of Emmanuel Macron. It weighs all the more since, now, the two men know each other. In five years, they established a relationship, nurtured by a few meetings and frequent telephone conversations. Emmanuel Macron had placed hope in this relationship, a grand design which sometimes bordered on obsession: to launch the negotiation of a “European security architecture”that of the XXIe century, with which Russia would be associated.
Calvary
This dream was shattered on the ruins of the cities of Ukraine bombarded by the Russian army since February 24. And the “firm and demanding dialogue”, according to the expression consecrated by Mr. Macron to justify the relationship he wanted to establish with the Russian president, is turning into a nightmare at the end of the campaign, when every day delivers new unbearable images of war crimes. No one dares to imagine what a “security architecture” negotiated with Moscow in a Europe subject to the “return of tragedy”, which is rearming and preparing for the eventuality of a new Iron Curtain. Will we discuss security architecture, or even security guarantees, with someone who refuses to cease fire for a few hours to evacuate civilians from Mariupol?
Over the past three months, Macron-Putin contacts have been more dialogue of the deaf than exchange. President Macron wanted this to be known, to understand why he maintained so stubbornly this link with a leader who lies brazenly, day after day. He instructed his advisers to report to the press each of his conversations with Vladimir Putin, often dismal accounts, to the desperate rhythm of Putin’s leitmotif of “denazification” in response to the argument of humanitarian urgency. In these telephone interviews, Emmanuel Macron tried all the registers, patience, persuasion, the rising tone. Each time, he hit the same wall.
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